Miranda Meehan, North Dakota State University Extension’s livestock environmental stewardship specialist, has been honored for her expertise and professionalism in delivering educational programs and information to the public with the 2018 Communicator of the Year award.

The NDSU Agriculture Communication Department and North Dakota chapter of the Association for Communication Excellence select one award recipient each year. Meehan was honored during the NDSU Extension conference held Oct. 22-25 in Bismarck, N.D.

Meehan joined the NDSU Extension team in 2015. She communicates with her target audiences in a number of ways, including social media, websites, news releases, face-to-face consultations, presentations, publications and news media interviews.

She was very involved in the efforts to help producers cope with the 2017 drought, which lingered into 2018. That included co-chairing conference calls with agents, specialists and representatives from other agencies such as the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency and North Dakota Stockmen’s Association.

Meehan has led several programing efforts to educate Extension personnel and producers on the importance of proper grazing management and livestock water quality. These efforts have led to the development of several tools to aid producers, including the NDSU Grazing Calculator App, forage production kits and the grazing monitoring stick. In addition, she has coordinated with the North Dakota Department of Health to provide water sampling containers and guidelines to each NDSU Extension county office.

She also is co-chair of the NDSU Extension Livestock Management Team. She has led efforts to improve the team’s communication by coordinating news releases and creating a social media presence.

Meehan earned B.S and M.S degrees in Animal and Range Science and a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Management, all from NDSU.

NDSU Agriculture Communication - Oct. 29, 2018